Stories for March 8th 2006

Rockhopper Exploration which holds hydrocarbons exploration and production licences offshore the Falkland Islands completed in mid February seismic and electro magnetic imaging surveys over their acreage.

There are no political overtones in this at all, it's just a necessary repair job that has to be done as quickly as possible, which means going to the nearest available dry dock of a size to take Endurance. She's a big ship and there aren't that many big dry docks around the South Atlantic.

Consolidating relations with Latinamerica and most particularly with Argentina, plus Peru and Bolivia are foreign relations top priorities of the incoming administration of elected Chilean president Michelle Bachelet.

The suicide rate among Falklands/Malvinas war veterans is fourteen times the Argentine population average claim veterans' associations. At least 350 and possibly 454, veterans have committed suicide since the end of the war in June 1982, a figure higher than the number actually killed in combat or sunk with the cruiser General Belgrano.

Businessmen, taxi and truck drivers in Ciudad del Este blocked this week the Friendship Bridge that links the Paraguayan city with Brazil's Foz de Iguazu in protest over strict customs controls on the Brazilian side.